AWARENESS program in Ulster County offers ignition interlock devices for use by young drivers

Michael Shultis, the region manager for LifeSafer, an ignition interlock device to test blood alcohol levels, holds up the device. To the left of the device is a camera that takes a photograph of the user to verify it is the correct person. (Freeman photo by Tania Barricklo)

KINGSTON, N.Y. -- Every time parents watch their teenager drive off, they take it on faith that their child knows enough not to drink and drive. But statistics prove that far too often teenagers do get behind the wheel of a car after they've been drinking. If they're lucky, they make it home unscathed. All too often, however, the results are tragic.

In Ulster County there is a little-known program that can help teenagers understand just how easily they can become too drunk to drive, and give their parents the peace of mind of knowing that their teen won't be able to drive drunk.

AWARENESS, a peer-based alcohol education and mentoring program for teenagers and young adults, now offers a pilot ignition interlock program. Under the program, teenagers, or their parents, can request that an ignition interlock device like those now required to be installed in the vehicles of anyone who has been convicted of drunken driving be installed in the teen's vehicle.

The device prevents a vehicle from starting until the driver blows into it and proves to have a blood alcohol content of less than 0.025 percent. Since 2010, state law has required that anyone convicted of drunken driving install an "ignition interlock device" in any vehicle they own or drive, preventing them from driving if they've been drinking.

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Marie Shultis, the developer and adult coordinator of AWARENESS (an acronym for Adolescents Working Assisting Restoring Empowering Nurturing Each Student Substantively), said LifeSafer Interlock Service has provided six devices to the AWARENESS program. The device can be installed in the vehicle of any teenager requesting one free for six months or for a minimal installation cost, she said.

Shultis said while she has had kids ask for the device after they've been stopped for drunken driving, to date, no teenagers have come forward to ask that the device be installed in their vehicles before they've been stopped for drunken driving.

"Kids think they're invincible," she said, They never think they're going to drink and drive, or they think they can handle it."

Unfortunately, she said, the death rates for teens from drunken driving prove otherwise.

She said that parents who are concerned that their teenagers might be drinking and driving can request the device be installed in their teen's car.

"It would be good for the parents to do," she said. "You can't worry that it's a 'trust issue,' because it isn't," she said. "They're all good kids. It's that they don't think or they don't know."

Shultis has been working to educate teenagers about the dangers of under-aged drinking since 2006, when her own teenaged children hosted an under-aged drinking party at her home while she and her husband, Michael, were out of town. Shortly after that incident, Shultis formed the AWARENESS Mentoring Program, a recreational program "aimed at giving middle school youths alternate activities provided by trained high school students to promote pro-social skills, with a special focus on tolerance skills, during recreational activities that constitute healthy alternatives to drug and alcohol use."

Three years later, she launched the AWARENESS Alcohol Program. Among the services provided through that program is a once-a-month three-hour, teen-led awareness program used by several local judges throughout the county as a sentencing option for teenagers charged with under-aged drinking.

The program, held once a month at the Ulster County Law Enforcement Center, includes the viewing of a DVD in which those who have been affected by under-aged drinking tell their story, an interview by a counselor trained by the Office of Alcohol and Substance Abuse and a 15-minute stint in a jail cell.

Additionally, weekly peer programs are held at the New Paltz Community Center for teenagers and at SUNY New Paltz for young adults.

For more information on the AWARENESS programs, including the ignition interlock device, visit the AWARENESS website at www.awarenessinc.org.